The Ex Files

What Elena Said!

Here's what Panasonic and agency Renegade, N.Y., have been up to. I'd write a story for Ex Files, but our Web editor beat me to it! Becky ([email protected])

Viva la Diva!

To protest the arrest of the character Susan Lucci plays on All My Children, ABC Daytime shot a "Free Erica Kane" rally complete with a performance by boy band B5. Hence the Che Guevara-inspired poster in the post below. B5 wrote a song called "Erika Cain" (kids are down with typos, y'all) with La Lucci's siren standing in as inspiration for that "ideal girl" who ends up driving you bonkers.  The ep featuring the rally will air later this month.
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The Silent Pepsi Generation

Here's a vying-to-be-viral vid on the making of a Pepsi Super Bowl commercial, which was filmed entirely in American Sign Language. (It'll be captioned for those who don't "speak" ASL.) Created by agency BBDO, the silent, 60-second ad chronicles a joke that is well-known in the deaf community. On the Scene, Los Angeles, is in charge of the YouTubery. Becky ([email protected])

It's Not Just TV...

I've seen mentions of this HBO Video/Virgin Megastore holiday display at a few Web sites, but not any actual footage. It's kinda neat to watch. Interacting with the screen "unwraps" the presents to reveal DVDs of The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire and other shows. The work was created by Monster Media and appears at 11 Virgin stores. Note: About 50 seconds in, the vid switches from the demo to a bunch of man-on-the-street testimonials.

Getting 'Real': Some Like to Watch

As the housing market slouches further into its slump, real estate developers are the latest group to recite the experiential marketing mantra. No longer content with cheapo enticements such as street side sign twirlers and customary coffee & crumb cake at open houses, they are getting up close and personal to turn shoppers into peeping toms and prospective purchasers.

“Not a lot of people qualify [for loans] anymore, so they’ve been throwing in extra stuff such as cars, vacations, gas cards and appliances to get people to buy,” said Peterson Gonzaga, a real estate agent at Goldland Pro Realty.

But first, they’ve got to get them to look.

To publicize a mixed-use shopping/living center opening next year in Glendale, Calif., Caruso Affiliated is offering sneak peeks to shoppers at another retail complex, The Grove in Los Angeles. There, the “Windows on Americana” cyclorama mural simulates the view from a second-floor terrace apartment overlooking a vast courtyard and neighboring units. The exhibit is embedded with flat-screen monitors that pose as condo windows, so voyeurs can peep at one-minute video loops of “residents” of the Americana at Brand complex as they enjoy the comforts of home, such as valet parking, concierge services, food delivery and a gym with personal trainers. The “Brand” in the title refers to Glendale’s Brand Boulevard.

While the Thanksgiving holiday traditionally marks the end of the real estate season, The Athena Group piggybacked the rampant retail madness of Black Friday (as well as Saturday) to market what it dubbed “the ultimate impulse purchase”: a new flat at The Rob Clark. While the name is actually an amalgam of the two chi-chi streets where the Beverly Hills complex resides, “Rob Clark” has been envisioned as a playboy personality who inhabits the haunts. In the stunt, Athena sent four bathrobed babes (two guys, two gals) down Robertson—home of The Ivy, Kitson and other hot spots on the Lohan-Hilton circuit—during the busy shopping days to pass out cocktail napkin come-ons luring people back to the 105-unit complex for a drink and a looksee at “Rob’s” personal pad. The Black Friday stunt generated about 50 leads, two of which went to contract, per sales and marketing director Harry Dubin.

Becky ([email protected])

Jonesin' for Jargon

My boyfriend is jealous of that old codger pictured on the Yahtzee box. As a child, he wanted to join the game that the adults were playing, but they turned down this request because he was “too young.” As he sat off on the card-table sidelines, the sketch of the smiling senior sporting a graduation cap seemed to be mocking him as if to say, “I’m smarter than you.” (“Yeah, well, why is he just now graduating at age 65 then?” is my conclusion, but it doesn’t seem to reassure him.)

People who overuse marketing jargon are my version of the Yahtzee Man. My impression is that executives who spout it think they are more intelligent than me, as if being tapped into this more-sophisticated strain of pig Latin is the equivalent of some secret handshake or shorthand for “I attended an expensive MBA program and you didn’t.” Other terms are more inclusive, but just plain cliche. Joyous will be the day I receive a press release within which a marketing executive isn’t quoted as being “excited,” “pleased” or “thrilled” to be “partnering with [insert brand/agency/celebrity name here].”

With the buzz, blurriness and built-in obsolescence of such terms as “experiential,” “viral” and “guerrilla” marketing running through my mind lately, I’ve got jargon on the noggin. Here are some of my least favorite terms used by marketers, and I’d like you to share yours, too:

* Due diligence: To me, this one says, “I was too lazy to do real research, but would have a hard time looking you in the eye while saying that directly”
* Cut through the clutter: This term explains what Brandweek journalists have to do as we paraphrase your quote and/or extract these four words because, collectively, they have been officially banned from our magazine
* Win-win situation: I’d bet good money that this will be the next phrase barred from our publication. Any takers?
* At the end of the day: It’s “Later,” dude
* On my plate: You are eating at the wrong restaurants if your meal is on par with any work-related assignment
* Paradigm shift: This one was semi-officially retired in late 1997 after some Internet entrepreneur realized that people weren’t absolutely squealing about the technological breakthrough that allowed them to order a pizza online
* SEM: Sounds more mysterious--and dirtier--than it is
* Out of the box, outside the box: For those who read the print mag, yes, I wrote a column called OOTB for years, but I’m not responsible for naming it. It is now known as Data Points
* Interfacing: When did we stop “talking”?
* Brand soul: Ick! Sounds like someone’s been drinking the Kool-Aid…
* Vertical integration: Gives me vertigo
* Vendors: “Get your peanuts here!”
* Turnkey solution: Ironically, these are rarely “turnkey” or a “solution” in practice
* This space: Please give me some breathing room from this term used to describe a vast entity that can’t really be comprehended, a la the Milky Way or the Internet
* Consumers: Yes, we all say it, but at the least, shouldn’t usage be limited to conversations about shopping and actual transactions, not as an all-occasions synonym for “people”? It’s easier to rationalize the implications of one’s marketing when the target is a pack of lemmings carrying ATM cards rather than actual humans

I intend to keep jargon to a minimum in this blog, as I think the readers I’ll attract would prefer that. Does marketing/business jargon give you indigestion? I’d love to hear your least favorites words and phrases. Maybe we can all make a pact and not use them. Also, wouldn’t it be fun to come up with an important-sounding yet bogus term that we can spread virally? Looking forward to “interfacing” with you in “this space” for a “win-win-WIN.”
Becky ([email protected])

PS: Every time you click this link an angel gets his wings

Where are those members of the Lollipop Guild when we need them?

Last week, "witch legs" festively dressed with striped stockings and sparkly shoes could be seen dangling out from the perimeters of prominent buildings in New York and Los Angeles as if a tornado had plopped the shops down on the unfortunate gals. The street effort supported Sci Fi Channel's original miniseries Tin Man, an on-acid reimagined take on the already on-acid Wizard of Oz. If there's a sequel, I sure hope the marketing involves flying monkeys. (Top photo by Evans Vestal Ward)

PS: If you're not a leg man, below is some "disarming" imagery of a street campaign (this shot was purportedly taken in Amsterdam) for the DVD launch of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof flick. I found it here and you can also read about it here, which is Sam Ewen's new blog.

Becky

See Me. Feel Me. Touch Me. Read Me.

Don’t let the title fool you. This “Ex” thing is not a rant on the men I’ve had irreconcilable differences with over the years, but instead, a blog about experiential marketing. What is experiential marketing? Actually, I’d like you to tell me.

Oh, sure, I’ve got my own notion of what the discipline encompasses, but this is the type of blog where I’d like readers to chip in with their witty, thought-provoking and/or all-out crazy musings. Just for the record, I consider guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, street marketing, grassroots marketing, ambient marketing, stealth marketing and trendy-term-o’-the-day marketing as subsets of the genre. While I would have a hard time defining experiential marketing, I know it when I see it.

For one thing, I believe it can be practiced by everyone from a scrappy startup to a fancypants Fortune 500. To me, it’s all about attitude. Also, the medium isn’t as important as the message: A clever experiential marketing campaign can come in the form of something as traditional as a magazine ad. Again, I’d love to hear how you define these genres. Here are some ideas on what types of stuff will fill this—for now, weekly, but soon, daily—column:

* Photos of really cool street campaigns/Web sites/non-traditional advertising
* Photos of really dumb street campaigns/Web sites/non-traditional advertising
* Commentary/analysis on either of the above
* Q&As with guerrilla marketing rock stars
* Discussions of industry trends and issues
* Mysterious WTF? links screaming, “I’m a teaser campaign!” that we can work together to solve.
* Links to cool photos, other people’s blogs, relevant articles, etc.
* Crazy ramblings that have nothing to do with the genre. I will try to keep these to a minimum, but I may occasionally slip up. For instance, I thought you should know that while I was writing this I received an e-mail from a “Urology Coding Advisor.” That has nothing to do with experiential marketing; it’s just that I was gonna burst (no pun intended) if I couldn’t share it.

The Ex Files will be less dissertation, more conversation (despite this lengthy introductory entry). Seen a new street campaign that’s baffled or excited you? Send me a pic. Noticing any industry trends? I wanna hear about ’em. Got a beef with the ethics of experiential marketing? Let me be your sounding board. Need someone to bail you out of jail for violating the Patriot Act with your innocent street stunt? I won’t—but I know a good lawyer. And, of course, feel free to brag about and send photos of your own work. Contribute and I’ll give you and your business a plug. I am not above bribery: At times, this could involve prizes, and I give good swag.

Since this is a blog about, among other things, word of mouth, it is my goal to put my money where my mouth is. It would be a shame if it attracted fewer eyeballs than, say, Brandweek’s other blogs. Therefore I beg you, to quote an old Alpha Beta supermarket ad, to “Tell a friend” and in turn (to reference the vintage Faberge Organics commercial), I hope that “They’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on…”

For starters, I’d love it if you would scroll down and write a comment, which can be anything from a “Colbert ’08!” to a critique of my hairdo. I want to know whether people are reading and, if so, what they want to read about. Oh, and if you’re too shy to respond in a public forum or if Typepad gives you agita, please drop me a line at [email protected].

Are you ready, suits?
Start squawkin’!
Becky